Tyler Blake

@Tyler Blake

Posts made by Tyler Blake

@diego_biosteam Hi Diego,
Well said ! My mom is an oil painter, so naturally she was my first art teacher. When I was about 11, I started to get serious about wanting to learn how to draw. Whenever I would show her something, what I wanted was high praise, and I did get some praise but she ALWAYS had constructive criticism. I accused her of being hyper critical, and she would just smile and say "I want to help you get better. We learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes." When I was a kid, that drove me nuts, but now, I appreciate it. :)

@eric-castleman Just me personally, I would add some texture (cracks, pebbles, etc) right under her and have the level of detail fade as it gets further from her. I think that would "ground" her without getting too crowded. Also, and this may be something you haven't got to yet, I think the lower left side is too dark. I think if it matched the color tone in the lower right hand it would work better. Very nice overall!

@diego_biosteam Hi Diego,
Thanks for the critique! It's too late for changes on this one, but I will definitely take any constructive criticism into account for the ones to follow. I know it's not perfect, but I made myself listen to Jake's "Finished Not Perfect" advice, and my brother is quite happy with it. But, I do want to improve each time. Good call on the references, I would say my biggest influence on the composition was Drew Struzen, who did so many movie posters. That's the kind of feel I want to get to... I will check out some more of those. I struggled with the color choices a bit- My brother asked for a sunrise sky, to reflect the overall hopeful tone of the story and that it's the beginning of the series. So, I wanted to mostly stick to the sunrise sky colors and their compliments. The large character with the horns has a bright red cloak in the story, so I felt that was necessary. On the tower, I actually really struggled with that and then went with purple as a compliment to the yellow sky behind it... if you were doing this, or were an art director, etc, what color might you have picked for the tower?

I agree with you about the candle... on my thumbnail, the girl was in a different location and pose, and when I got started, I thought of this change. I'm still glad I made the change, but I wish I would have placed her a little lower to avoid the tangent.
It's "A Prince of The North"... Thanks, this definitely does help! :)

To Ben, I'm not sure why you deleted your post, I can assure you I'm not afraid of constructive criticism. I think all artists love compliments but constructive criticism is always more helpful. I read it quickly once, and when I sat down to really digest and reply to both of these, it was gone. If you still would like to share your opinion, I'd still like to hear it :)

Hi everyone,
I choked hard on inktober this year, because I had my first book cover to do:

The author is my older brother, he's launching it on kickstarter soon. This is something we've been working on for many years. This was done with acrylic ink on 22 x 30 inch watercolor paper, except the lettering which was added digitally.